Student Life

Everyone worries about making  new friends in secondary school.  But at Mater Dei Academy, our school community goes above and beyond to make you feel completely welcome. Hear how our students made new friends and what they have to say about teaching and learning, prayer, homework, and teachers at Mater Dei Academy.

Curriculum

Mater Dei Academy provides a comprehensive six-year programme in the classical tradition, 
culminating in the Irish Leaving Certificate examination. 

Our four year junior cycle provides a provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to liberal education in the classical tradition built on the three pillars of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. First year students study...
 

• Gaeilge

• English

• Mathematics

• Theology

• Philosophy

• Art

• Music

• History

• Science (geology & astronomy) 

• Latin

• Physical Education

​

French is introduced in Year 2.
Read more...

How We Learn

At Mater Dei Academy, we emphasise classical learning because we want our students to read well, speak well, and think well. We learn in this way to enable our students to think critically and deeply about important questions. But we also do it because Truth and Beauty are good in themselves and desirable for their own sake.

Our experienced teachers introduce our students into the wisdom of two thousand years of Catholic thought, history, culture, and arts, helping each student to understand themselves and our world in the light of the Truth. Education in this deep and comprehensive sense extends beyond the classroom and is more than just the acquisition of skills. Education at Mater Dei Academy is not just training for work but learning for life. For this reason, we look to involve families ever more deeply in the life of the Academy and in the education of their children. Read more...

Examinations

Junior Cycle

Our students are assessed to international standards of excellence across the following core subjects:
 

• Gaeilge (Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge)

• English (Cambridge IGCSE 0500)

• Mathematics (Cambridge IGCSE 0580)

• French (DELF)

• Latin (IGCSE Cambridge 0480)

• Science (IGCSE Cambridge 0653) 

• History (IGCSE Cambridge 0470)

Students are independently assessed in the additional subjects of Art, Music, Philosophy, Theology and Physical Education. 

​

Senior Cycle

At the end of sixth year, students will take the Leaving Certificate from the following subjects: 

​

• Gaeilge 

• English

• Mathematics

• Applied Mathematics

• French

• Latin or Classical Studies

• Physics

• Chemistry

• Biology

• History

• Art

• Music

• Religious Education

​

Additional examination subjects including may be offered subject to demand where the Academy will look to exploit flexible learning options, peer support and distance learning to enable each student to study subjects most suited to their aptitudes and interests.

Parents

International Students